Silicon Valley exec Phil Libin doesn’t eat for eight days at a time and says he’s never felt healthier

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“Getting into fasting is definitely one of the top two or three most important things I’ve done in my life.”

Mr Libin said he had his doubts when he first heard of the concept, but was willing to give it a try and was glad he did.

“The first day I felt so hungry I was going to die. The second day I was starving. But I woke up on the third day feeling better than I had in 20 years,” he said.

Chief executive of biohacking and nootropics company HVMN Geoffrey Woo said participants got the most out of the trend when combining fasting with tracking of vitals like body composition, blood glucose and ketones — a compound produced when the body burns fat for energy or fuel.

“You would think that after seven days of not eating you would be totally distracted and hunting for food, but at around the two or three day mark hunger tapers off as ketone levels are elevating. You are feeding your brain and body with an alternative fuel source.”

Mr Woo added ketones are a super-fuel for the brain.

“So a lot of the subjective benefits to fasting, including mental clarity, are down to the rise in ketones in the system,” he said.